Basketball Town Bilbao In Eurocup Final

Alex Mumbru's 13 points came in handy for Bilbao Basket in their return leg against Kiev

Bilbao is known in the sporting world for a famed and unique in its philosophy club, Athletic; one of only three clubs to have never been relegated from the top flight of Spanish football.

Uxue Bilbao Basket, a club that was founded in 2000 and only played for the first time in the ACB in 2004, has made spectacularly enormously strides these past years in creating basketball fans in the Basque city.

They made the Spanish Liga Endesa play-off finals in 2011, they've played in the Turkish Airlines Euroleageue and reached the Eurocup semi-finals on two occasions.

Nothing consecrates a club though internationally like playing in a European final, and nothing replicates the sweet expectation that the prospect of winning a European title raises in the city in the lead up to that final.

As of Wednesday night, Uxue Bilbao are a consecrated club, and from now on they will share the spotlight with Athletic in the collective conscience of European sport fans.

Over 10,000 crazed fans watched on Wednesday as Bilbao swept aside Budivelnik Kiev 75-53 in a packed Miribilla arena to win their Eurocup semi-final tie with a 32-point differential on average.

The Ukrainian team arrived in Bilbao with the almost impossible mission to overcome a 10-point deficit from the first leg, and without the services of injured Latvian international guard Rihard Kuksiks and veteran Lithuanian forward Dainius Salenga.

Bilbao also had problems of their own, with Serbian international big man Milovan Rakovic watching from the sidelines.

But midway through the second quarter, none of this mattered anymore and both teams knew it.

Bilbao were not going to miss out on this final and they stormed out of the gates to take a 37-21 lead at half-time, simply cruising the rest of the way while coach Fotis Katsikaris could afford sharing around playing time among all players on the squad.

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Former Spain international Alex Mumbru and Lamont Hamilton paved the way for the hosts with 13 points each, with the Catalan forward also adding four rebounds.